mafo

A really good story, and well-researched and detailed. Not every day you get a “very interesting life” story that's also a “serendipitously frequently in the background of historical events” story. I really commend the author on writing such a long book that just stays interesting the whole time.

Interesting, well-written and unusually structured in a unique way that WORKED.

Enjoyable writing style, but this book was a let down for me. I thought it was going to be about Paris as a whole, but it was all about one circle, and had too many uncompelling characters, and ultimately circled around “investigations” and “trials” that were just one person's word against another ad nauseum.

Enjoyable writing style, but this book was a let down for me. I thought it was going to be about Paris as a whole, but it was all about one circle, and had too many uncompelling characters, and ultimately circled around “investigations” and “trials” that were just one person's word against another ad nauseum.

Lots of good advice in a concise package, but not necessarily anything I'd never heard before. Recommended overall - it never hurts to be reminded of good ideas you “already know” but aren't using because you forgot

I'm not sure I've ever truly had a book just wash over me before. It's a really fun, lovely romp around a beautiful place with the author as an interesting, fun kid. I was very impressed at how he really sets every scene with description, since one of my writing pet peeves is “three adjectives for everything”.

I really loved this book. The writing is lovely and the “plot” is a page turner. The author is able to sort of take a really complicated thing (her closed, transracial adoption) and honor every part of it and really dig into every corner of the emotions involved for her and others, and leave it complicated but not unresolved. If that makes sense? It's just a great book about identity and expectation and unwalked paths and family and the “origin stories” we tell ourselves.

Very interesting, untold story told largely based on the POV of a female civilian administrator from the project, which I think adds something. It loses it's away a little when it gets into the HUAC stuff - it feels like the author feels compelled to add it, but isn't really excited about it. Overall, I recommend the book.

Well-paced and told alongside historical context for those of us who are not experts, plus an engaging cast and story

I expected it to be a little dull, but as an enthusiast wanted to read it anyway. I was totally mistaken, it was extremely well-paced, covered large events as well as interesting anecdotes, and included a great breadth of information.

Good characters, amazing true story, not a super strong narrative path, but something is always happening. The author has a slightly weird style where his attempts at metaphor and wordplay seem sorta forced, but as you get to know his personality you start to appreciate it. One thing I found sort of frustrating is that the author attempts to demonstrate “how the code works” at a few points early in the book, and maybe it was the Kindle format or maybe I'm a little dyslexic, but I didn't follow at all. The good news for those of you who also experience this, is that it doesn't really matter in the end, as he generally explains the situation in lay terms as well. Highly recommended. Made me hate my job because it's not as noble as staying up all night decoding secret dispatches to help heroic secret agents blow up Nazi trains.

The majority of the information is in the minority of the text. It suffers from constant restatement of the author's thesis that humankind sees underground pursuits as hell-like, and relies heavily on the reader's existing knowledge of the topography of London.

The majority of the information is in the minority of the text. It suffers from constant restatement of the author's thesis that humankind sees underground pursuits as hell-like, and relies heavily on the reader's existing knowledge of the topography of London.

Interesting, page-turning and scratches that “I should know about this thing” itch. Downside was that it started too late (stop talking about Bunker Hill like I know what happened there!) and ended too early (AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?!) Would still recommend, I just need to do some research to round it out.

Great for fans of the not-straight-forward elements of geneology, great for fans of food origin stories, great for fans of southern food.

I read a lot of non-fiction on Very Interesting Topics that find me powering through dry writing because KNOWLEDGE!, and that's what I expected from this - I was totally wrong. The writing straddles conversational and evocative, and the narrative weaves effortlessly back and forth between personal and historical. Beautifully written, emotional and informative.

Holds your interest right from the start, total pageturner, characters you immediately become invested in. Also excellent atmosphere and lead-ins and slow-reveals. I think ultimately sort of a whodunit, but without being hokey or predictable. I also enjoyed the sense of the author having seen The Shining and found it iconic but insipid and knowing she could do better...while nonetheless building on its foundations.

I feel weird about this book. The crux of the weirdness is that this is really good advice for managing up...if you're an executive admin. Like, triaging my boss' email is WAY out of the scope of my job. If you keep reading, though, that type of stuff turns out to be more “staging” than the meat of the book. Ultimately there is a lot of good advice that I'd consider somewhat obvious, but that doesn't make it bad advice. Things like anticipating your boss' needs, being a team player, and knowing when making your boss look good is more important than making yourself look good. Still feel weird because I've never really worked anywhere with this management paradigm.

Sort of a cerebral beach read. Mostly interesting trivia, centered around the theme of “we don't even really know anything”. A satisfying thesis for scientists like me.

Very interesting tale of the start, reputation, and changing culture of Mclean. There are some brief but descriptive passages about suicide, for those who want to avoid those, but the vast majority of the book is with a larger field of view, and longer timeline. Recommended if you're interested in Boston institutions or the modern history of psychiatric care.

Page-turning, obviously embellished but miraculously tolerably so. The middle is very drawn out and loses focus while adding a bunch of characters. Still worth a read.

I friggin loved this book. It goes from zero to creepy-as-hell IMMEDIATELY, and then is really well paced throughout. The author brings in good supporting information at every turn, and when he finally draws his conclusion, he's not bombastic about it.

Page-turning story, well contextualized without being ruined by meandering tangents. Definitely recommend.

Very interesting guy, book moves along at a great pace and is just the right length. I was initially avoiding the book because I thought it would be just factoids about the museum, but it was actually a very interesting look at the dawn of medical education in the US.

I was thrown by the beginning, as she basically glosses over graduate school and job-hunting, which are no cake-walk, but I eventually appreciated that she wanted to give deeper attention to a certain period of her career. I know a lot of scientists in their PhD/post-doc/job application period, and it made me think “this book is disconnected from reality” when it started off breezing through all that like it was nothing. Unfortunately that was sort of my strongest feeling about it. Except that I really liked Bill.

Good book, bad mystery